Greenland wolf
| Greenland wolf | |
|---|---|
_Greenland_draught_wolf.jpg) | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Canidae |
| Genus: | Canis |
| Species: | C. lupus |
| Subspecies: | C. l. orion |
| Trinomial name | |
| Canis lupus orion Pocock, 1935[1] | |
The Greenland wolf (Canis lupus orion) is a possible subspecies of gray wolf native to Greenland. The subspecies is described as being small to medium in stature, but extremely light in weight. However, this understanding of the size of the Greenland wolf is derived from only five specimens that were caught in winter, so their light weight could be attributed to malnutrition. The original evolution of the Greenland wolf appears to have come about from a predecessor to modern northern wolf subspecies, of which a pack or number of packs became stranded on Peary Land in northern Greenland, due to the Wisconsin glaciation period. After the ice sheets had receded, the subspecies began moving south into the rest of Greenland and also west onto the Queen Elizabeth Islands.[2]
Because of its close proximity to the range of the Arctic wolf, the Greenland wolf has commonly been disputed as being a truly separate subspecies. Most biologists accept the fact that the Greenland wolf migrated from Canada by crossing the frozen sea ice between the two regions, an activity that is often documented in modern times when the Nares Strait freezes. One of the major problems in properly classifying the Greenland wolf lies in the fact that the wolf population is very low in Greenland and it is difficult to find and document the subspecies at all. Because of this, there are no proper studies that have been conducted that can be compared to other studies done on North American wolves.[2]
References
External links
- Charles Richard Harington; Canadian Museum of Nature (2003). Annotated Bibliography of Quaternary Vertebrates of Northern North America: With Radiocarbon Dates. University of Toronto Press. pp. 30–. ISBN 978-0-8020-4817-2. Retrieved 31 December 2012.
- "Endoparasites of Arctic Wolves in Greenland" – Arctic Vol. 50 No. 4 (December 1997)
- Robert A. Saindon (2003). Explorations Into the World of Lewis and Clark: 194 Essays from the Pages of We Proceeded on. Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation. pp. 426–. ISBN 978-1-58218-762-4.